Mobile-only banking startup bets on bots

Microsoft made headlines when Tay, the chatbot designed to engage with millennials, was exploited and began tweeting what the company described as “wildly inappropriate and reprehensible words and images.” [ Related: Microsoft ‘deeply sorry’ for Tay chatbot, will bring it back when ‘vulnerability’ is fixed ] But other companies are quietly implementing similar artificial intelligence technology to interact with current and future customers. Atom Bank, a startup, mobile-only bank based in the U.K. recently announced that it is incorporating WDS Virtual Agent software from Xeros into its mobile app. The machine learning software will give customers an agent-like option for assisted self-service on the app. The software was introduced two year ago to diagnose and solve customer queries by analyzing data and learning from the ways in which human agents…